my day of not smiling

Sorry I've been incommunicada. Reasons:

minor health challenges
lots of work
renewed commitment to and energy for work

Last Monday, I had a bladder infection that did not respond to the first kind of antibiotics I was prescribed. The infection moved very quickly from my bladder into my kidneys. This made me very sick, and I was in a lot of pain. My husband took me to the ER and went across the street to Safeway to get a snack when they drew me blood. Once I had the IV of saline and Cipro in me, I was MUCH BETTER. Now I'm on a ten-day course of Cipro. Cipro is the last line of antibiotic defense because it kills everything--the doctors use it sparingly. When you need it, it is a miracle drug. If I were to meet the people responsible for inventing this drug, I would kiss them all on the lips, with tongue. In the aftermath, I felt very very fortunate to have access to excellent medical care and pharmaceuticals.

So that was bad. But in comparison, the Mohs surgery this week was a walk in the park, so I was pretty relaxed for that. The small treatable basal cell skin cancer to the right of my nose was soon dispatched. After they'd removed that, they made an inch long incision above and below the cancer site, and sewed it up. Supposedly, this was to avoid an unsightly puckered scar, which would have happened if they'd only sewed up the cancerous area. I'm not sure how an inch-long scar is more cosmetically desirable than one smaller than a quarter-inch, even with puckers, and the stitches aren't particularly small. But who am I? If it heals unobtrusively, I'm still a beauty queen; if it heals ugly, I get a well-needed blow to the vanity, and gain an Air of Mystery. At the moment I'm sporting a bandage.

Yesterday, it hurt to smile, seeing as the incision is in an area of the face that gets a lot of action during the smiling. This put me in a sour mood, not being able to smile. Or at least exacerbated my sour mood. Today I can smile. And I'm in a better mood. Which I enhanced with wheatgrass juice. Don't knock it til you've tried it. I also went and looked at the sale rack at the GAP, and was nonplussed.